Recently, image data such as, for example, an image photographed with a digital camera or an image read with an optical character reader (OCR) is being exchanged through a network, such as the Internet. A cellular telephone equipped with a digital camera is available, and it is now possible to exchange image data between cellular telephones. Conventionally, an aggregate of binary data, such as image data, is managed as a file including information relating to the image, for example, information relating to image resolution.
For example, as shown in FIG. 24, conventionally first image data 161 and the information 157 relating to the image data 161 have been managed as one file; second image data 162 and the information 158 relating to the image data 162 have been managed as one file; third image data 163 and the information 159 relating to the image data 163 have been managed as one file; and fourth image data 164 and the information 160 relating to the image data 164 have been managed as one file.
If a plurality of binary data is to be copied or deleted, it has been necessary to process each binary data file individually, except for performing a process on the folder or on the directory. So, if a plurality of binary data is processed by batch processing, the batch processing may not always be completed due to an omission in the processing of a part of the binary data. Because binary data, such as image data, cannot include character information, the file name associated with the binary data is keys to retrieving such binary data, their creation dates and their update dates. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to handle such binary data.
Further, owing to the recent advancement of the information industry, data communications of document information including the binary data described above are frequently performed though networks, such as the Internet. For example, on the Internet, browser software is configured to read data described by means of a mark up language called Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) for displaying the description of the data.
The markup language can describe a site that is desired to be linked to and the markup language is adapted to make it possible for the browser software to access link position information, such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), as the link destination. In the following description, “URLs” will be exemplified. In the conventional file linking by means of the HTML markup language, the linking functions to change a display corresponding to a change of URLs by changing one URL to another URL designating a position of a document. This is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication Hei 11-96098 at page 5, section 0012.
Since the URL is described, however, by means of text data which is easily understood visually, the URL may easily be altered. Consequently, files other than the file designated by an original URL may easily be accessed.
More specifically, suppose a URL such as “http://www.aaa.ne.3p/20010101.html” was originally designated, the above-mentioned problem occurs at the time of amending the URL to another estimated URL such as “http://www.aaa.ne.jp/20010102.html,” which is intended to refer to the next file.
That is, there is a problem in that a person having an evil intention can access the file (“http://www.aaa.ne.jp/20010102.html”) other than the original file (“http://www.aaa.ne.jp/20010101.html”).
Conventionally, it was impossible to prohibit tracing a URL other than the originally designated URL. If the prohibition was attempted, it was necessary to perform complicated processing, such as alteration of the file designated by the URL, in advance.
Moreover, if a URL to be kept secret is transferred by electronic mail, there is a problem in that anyone who receives the URL can easily access a file at a URL other than the transferred URL.
Accordingly, the present invention aims to provide an access restriction apparatus, an access restriction method, a computer readable program storage medium having a recorded access restriction program, and the access restriction program, capable of solving the problems described above and of allowing a terminal to refer only to management information that exists at a position designated by link position information.